Somatic Education Australasia (SEA)
Australia
Otto Ramstad
Saturday, Day 2
November 2nd
5:00am - 6:30am EDT
Steve Paxton’s Material for the Spine and Embryology
Material For the Spine concentrates accumulated knowledges from Steve Paxton’s study of walking, Contact Improvisation and Aikido practice to explore the movement possibilities in the spine and the connections between the head, pelvis, and vertebrae. This solo practice is a meditative study of a series of exercises, body puzzles and ideokinetic imagery.
These approaches share a few possibilities to use some skeletal anatomy that is simple and direct and at the same time physically challenging. Because of its simplicity, there is a lot of room to experiment and dance with the material. It also includes working with qi or chi from the perspective of Aikido.
The combination of choosing a simple way of working with your body and energy, and how it connects to space resonates strongly with the BMC® approach to embryology to me. I will explore these connections in this workshop.
Bio
Otto Ramstad, is a dance artist who makes performances, video works and installations for theaters, galleries, museums and different site and context specific encounters. For twenty years he has been collaborating with Olive Bieringa as BodyCartography Project. The mission of BodyCartography Project is to engage with the vital materiality of our bodies to create live performance that facilitates a re-enchantment of embodiment, relationship, and presence. BodyCartography has been creating performances, films, installations, and festivals internationally in urban, domestic, wild, and social landscapes. He is part of the team for SEA Somatic Education in Australia.